Printing chaos: How Libya’s monetary crisis fuels war, Wagner, and refugee crises

Libya today stands at the centre of a fiscal and security storm with consequences that extend far beyond its borders.  At the heart of this crisis is the eastern parallel government that operates under the de facto control of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which since 2023 has relied on unchecked monetary financing to sustain its operations.  In just two years, this authority has created an extraordinary LYD 129 billion (~ €24 billion) in new debt, pushing Libya’s total domestic debt to LYD 284 billion – the highest in the country’s modern history. For a nation of fewer than seven million people, this pace and scale of debt accumulation is staggering. It raises an unavoidable question: where has this money gone? […]